Ross speaks on topics including Indonesia, Bali, Cancer and wellness. Also on social matters within our community.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Finding ‘goodness’ from Bali bombing tragedy

Ross B. Taylor

This Sunday
Australia will pause and reflect upon the lives of 88 of our citizens who lost
their lives in a shocking act of terrorism 12 years ago on the streets of Bali.

We should
also remember that in this attack on innocent people, 38 Indonesia citizens
lost their lives, and a further 76 people from all over the World also died in
an event that shattered Bali’s image as a friendly, easy-going holiday
playground for so many of us.For some
people the 12th October is a time when they need to grieve and to
reflect. For others it is a time they would rather forget; the pain is simply
too great.

In any
‘event’ where tragedy occurs or we are confronted with death, inevitably grief,
anger, hurt and resentment will follow. This also happens when people are
suddenly diagnosed with a ‘terminal’ illness as can happen with cancer for
example. It happened to me in 1993.

The question
I had to face as a result of my own journey with a life-threatening illness,
and also for my wife Katherine who lost her mother, cousin, aunty and father to
cancer, is can we possibly find any goodness that we can take from an
experience that was unquestionably ‘terrible’.

Here is the
paradox: Had it not been for our respective cancer journeys, my wife and I
would never have met many people who are now our closest friends; people who
have inspired us - including some who have since passed away – and have come
into our lives solely because of a terrible event. And our lives would not be
so meaningful with an enormous sense of purpose.

So perhaps
there is a common link between a life-threatening experience such as cancer,
and the tragedy that has left families and friends to confront the impact of
the Bali bombings, and is it indeed possible to find something ‘good’ from what
happened on that terrible night in Bali 12 years ago?

Peter, a
colleague of mine watched helplessly as his close friend suffered terribly from
burns received in the 2002 blast. Peter desperately wanted to extract some
‘goodness’ from this evil act, so for the past few years he has worked at
remote Balinese schools who accept children with disabilities. Peter will now
spend his time building new wooden legs for some of the desks; legs that make
the desks higher and able to accommodate wheel chairs, thus allowing disabled
children to carry-out their studies alongside other children. Peter did not
need any publicity, any awards, and no recognition was needed. He is just an
‘ordinary’ Aussie making a difference to disadvantaged children; a direct
result of the Bali bombings.

I have
numerous Indonesian friends who also carry out acts of charity as a result of
experiences that have left them deeply affected. These people not only help
others, but also help themselves through ‘healing with kindness’.

Ironically,
at a government-to-government level, relations between Indonesia and Australia
should have collapsed as a result of what happened in 2002. Yet in their
commitment to find the perpetrators of these bombings, the Indonesian National
Police (Polri) and Australia’s Federal Police formed an unusual alliance that
resulted in most of the Bali bombers being apprehended and convicted by
Indonesian Courts.

This ‘odd’
partnership only happened due to an act of terrorism, yet it has endured, and
resulted in a number of subsequent planned attacks in Bali and Java being
thwarted in time to undoubtedly save the lives of many more Australian tourists
and locals alike.

The Bali
bombings have also brought the Balinese people and Australians closer together
rather than force us away as the terrorists would have hoped. We see that
today, as millions of young Indonesians take to twittersphere to say how they detest the Islamic State and want nothing to do with people who wish to
inflict harm upon their own community or visitors to their beautiful country.
Bali in 2002 showed us the very worst of what can happen when fanatics take
control, and today both our countries are better and safer because of the
lessons learned from that experience.

On a
personal level, as happens with people who lose loved-ones to cancer, or even in
a road accident for example, they are often encouraged to ‘move on’. That’s not
as easy as people would like to think. The pain and grief is very real and
‘raw’.

Rather than
seek to ‘move-on’from grief, maybe we
should open ourselves to ‘allow-in’ kindness and goodness? That we make a
commitment to, in future, live a little better for having known the ones we
have lost.

So as we
pause to commemorate this event that devastated our nation 12 years ago, let us
all make a commitment as a community to live a little better, to show respect
and good nature in our daily lives, and to be more loving towards those who are
important to us.

To do this
gives some purpose and meaning to our lives, and truly honours the spirit of
those who we lost 12 year ago.